By Joyce Liku Janda

November 10, 2006 - How often have you heard people say, ‘I speak for the voiceless?’ Who are the voiceless? How did they acquire voiceless status? Who has the power to distribute or to deny people the right to their voices? Language is a very powerful tool of communication. It can impact on people’s lives either positively or negatively depending on how it is used. In some traditional settings, the right to speak or not to speak is hierarchical. For example an older person has more rights to speak than a younger one. Or it follows the social ladder where people who have higher social status have more rights to speak than those with low status. 

People with economic power verse those economically poor. Men have more rights to speak than women and children. In some traditions one finds expressions like “women and children are to be seen but not to be heard”. They are rendered voiceless where decision making is concerned regardless of whether the decisions made affect their lives directly or not. For women and children, more often than not decisions have to be made for them by male adults. In other words women and children are considered powerless and by implication voiceless. Parents some times hold on to power to decide for their children for so long that they make it difficult for their children to learn how to make their own life decisions even when they are old enough to do so. Such situations can drive people to lack confidence in them   and develop low self esteem that can even lead to suicidal tendencies!

 Unfortunately, one often comes across statements such as “I work for street children, prostitutes, in conflict area or in refugee camps”. Such people see themselves as “voices for the voiceless”. Is being a voice for the voiceless helping the so called voiceless people to regain their voices? Or is the term actually used to silence or shut people up more, because they   have no the economic power?

 The expression “Voice for the Voiceless” can be so dehumanizing that when it is not used with sensitivity; can drive people to committing suicide. For example, in refugee camps where donors make all the decisions for the refugees, they plan to feed them on beans, maize and oil All the containers are marked, one example of that is. “Gift from the people of the United States of America- Not for Sale”.

Sadly when people become refugees they are reduced to hungry numbers that need to be fed   on beans, maize and vegetable oil. If they dare to sell the said items in order to buy meat or vegetable to change the diet, they are punished. Women and children might take such orders since they may be used to taking decisions being made for them. A man however may choose to die instead of being reduced to eating beans, maize and oil, not to mention the thought of being rendered voiceless.

After all, before he became a refugee he was the head and voice of his family. A situation like this can drive people crazy or an extreme where they can committee suicide. Cases of suicide especially among men have been reported   in refugee camps and it would be interesting to find out if some of the cases are not due to the lose of power if some research were done!

 Unfortunately the statement “A voice for the voiceless” is so commonly used that the people who are termed voiceless often begin to believe that they are indeed voiceless. Excuses normally made to deny people decision making power range from gender age, level of education, or outright uneducated people. These categories of people are rendered incapable of making their own decisions. Situations like these can be so dehumanizing that people may begin to live according to the expectations imposed on them and in severe cases they may end up mute.

To illustrate this point, I would like you to read a true story below of a ten year old boy who was born with speech impediment and other physical complications. His parents compounded his problems when they rendered him as “voiceless” because they failed to find out what their child was capable of doing or not doing or what his real needs were.

Tom’s Story

Tom- (Not his real name) was a ten year old boy with special needs. One day he was referred to me by a doctor after the doctor discovered Tom did not really need a doctor but a special needs teacher to help him acquire some social or self help skills such as dressing, brushing his teeth, washing his hands, feeding himself, things that a ten-year old child could ordinarily do. I had met Dr.Wani (not his real name) earlier in some social function and talked to him about my profession. As he talked to Tom’s parents in his office, he suddenly remembered our conversation and proposed that Tom’s parents should talk to me about their child.

Tom’s parents agreed with the proposal and then a meeting was quickly arranged for us to meet. At the first meeting it was agreed that Tom’s Medical records be left with me     so that I could study them and try to learn what Tom was already capable of doing and take him from there. 

This was followed by a second meeting a few days later where Tom and I were introduced to each other. Luck had it on my side and Tom liked me at first sight. Besides what I read from Tom’s medical records I wanted his parents to tell me what they saw as Tom’s most crucial need. The mother’s concern was the need to communicate with her son. She said “Tom does not talk or even communicate using signs.” Tom’s father believed that besides Tom’s lack of speech he could also be deaf. I then proceeded to ask questions like, “How does he communicate needs or feelings like hunger, thirst, use of the toilet, feeling hot or cold etc?”

The mother explained that Tom has his own plate, cup and glass. When he is hungry or sees the members of the family going to eat, he gets his own plate and gives it to his mother or the house help to serve him food. If he wants to use the toilet he just gets hold of an adult and leads the person towards the toilet to help him with pulling down his pants and back on. If he feels cold or hot he just gets his pullover and gives an adult to help him put it on or off. As the parents were talking to me I watched the expressions on Tom’s face and I was suspicious that Tom was following everything.

After the brief introduction, I asked the parents to leave and come back after two hours, the time we agreed Tom would spend with me from Monday to Friday, from 2.00 to 5.00 pm. As soon as Tom’s parents left I sat on a chair facing Tom and talked to Tom normally. The conversation with Tom went like this.

“Tom, I want you to look at me and listen to me very carefully.( The opening command jerked Tom into position and he looked straight into my eyes ) Your parents have told me that you can’t talk and your father has said that he is not even sure whether you can hear. Are these statements true Tom? Is it true that you can neither talk nor hear?”

Tom was silent for a while and continued looking at me. I then repeated the same question again. This time Tom struggled to speak in a very strange and coarse voice (that can still be understood) and he said.” No, this is not true, I can speak and hear but my parents do not know this. I then asked “How is it that your parents do not know that you can hear and talk and yet you live together! Tom replied that his parents were very busy people. When they asked him a question they had no time to wait for the reply. He explained that he could not move his tongue quickly. When his parents asked him a question they did not have the time to wait long enough for the answer. The easy way out for him was just to keep quiet. “The reason why I answered your question is you had the time to wait for the answer. As for my parents I just had to live up to their expectation. They believe I can’t talk or hear, so be it!”

One month later after 20 hours of interactions with Tom, I invited his parents to visit us at work. Before they came, we agreed with them that they will be stationed in a corner where Tom would not see them for some time. After they arrived Tom and I continued working as usual. I had told them to join us as soon as they felt they had witnessed enough of what we were doing every day. On the material day the couple did exactly as they were instructed. They were so amazed to discover what their son was able to do that they were glued into that spot for one hour! When the couple finally decided to reveal themselves, Tom was startled and asked. “How long have you been standing there?” (In a clear voice albeit slowly). Tom’s parents were speechless to hear their son talk to them. They then rushed to hug him with tears in their eyes. They asked him why he wasn’t talking to them. When Tom told them the reasons, they were very sad. Soon after that they both took holidays from their jobs so they could spend more time talking to their son without always trying to rush him.

The space in this article cannot allow me to tell the whole story about how far Tom went with his speech therapy, social and self-help skills; self esteem and education generally after what was an amazing encounter. It is enough to say that he made great strides in his development.

The point I am trying to make by this story is that when we affirm what people can do or cannot do, they begin to live by that expectations imposed on them especially if their live hood depended on them. Like Tom who was reduced to a silent life by his parents, many more people are reduced to the same positions by parents, husbands and wives or by authority. Is this the kind of life we want for our societies to lead where the poor, children, women or men are reduced to silent lives by the economically powerful?

The so called “Voiceless Persons” by those who call themselves a voice to the voiceless are usually found among people with economic power describing the poor, disabled, minority groups refugees or immigrants and slaves or those who are economically poor as voiceless. The expression is at best an abuse of the poor by the economically powerful. It is an expression used to silence them.

To use ones’ voice is a human right. It is the basis for democracy that is so much emphasized in theory in the present world. Let us then begin to experience this democracy in practice. No persons should position themselves as voices for the voiceless.

Let us therefore all work hard towards democracy beginning from the very roots of democracy that is listening to everyone’s voices without discrimination. There can be no democracy without sensitivity to listening to people’s voices or needs. Our primary objective should be to help people to voice their concerns but not to shut them up and become voices for them. If people cannot physically use their voices to make decisions, give them pens or ballots.